Rejection is part & parcel of any freelancer's life, of course. But stories like this one can help to ease the sting of the critical masses.
It's a news story about Joshua Bell, the world famous violinist. As an internationally acclaimed violin virtuoso his concerts regularly sell out at $100 a ticket. However recently he fooled everyone. Joshua Bell appeared unannounced and played for free... for an hour in the D.C. Subway (on his $3.5 million Stradivarius no less) as a busker.
What happened? For an entire hour he performed his free recital and basically nothing happened. The thousands of people walking past just ignored him completely. Only one person recognized him. Children stopped to listen, but were soon whisked away by their parents.
I think it's a valuable lesson to not take rejection too seriously in the creative arts. Nobody knows the value of one's own creativity better than we do ourselves!
"Some people occasionally put money in Bell's violin case, as he played the gorgeous Bach Chaconne (actually twice, the first and last piece), as well as other pieces by Bach for unaccompanied violin and the famous Gounod Ave Maria. No one stopped until the very end, when one young woman stood taking it all in, with the crowd rushing by her. She then chatted with Bell, saying that she caught his concert at the Library of Congress the month before."
6 comments:
That is SO funny, lol.
Reminds me of a TV show I saw a while back where someone tried to sell a Picasso painting on the street for 25$. (It was valued at three million, I believe.) Not one person wanted it, and one lady said it looked like it was painted by a baboon.
I loved the drawings and the photos of the cherry trees too, BTW!
YOu've been busy!
Great Picasso story!
I remember once in NYC I put out one of my old paintings on the street, by the garbage. I was totally flattered when someone picked it up and carried it off within 5 minutes!
lol!
jn
Great stories! Sure puts things in perspective. Maybe more than we really would like to admit. I guess the basis of what your saying is exactly why publishers go with celebrity authors.
gail
ps Glad you liked my kitty.
It's great that Joshua Bell was able to busk without being noticed. I'd like to listen to his side of the story though. Good and perceptive write. Thanks.
Don't you guys think it's interesting that the KIDS wanted to stop, but the adults (not surprisingly) wanted to hurry along? Stop and smell the roses, people- and listen to the cute, genius violin players!
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